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#theres literally no reason for this beyond the fact that he looked good
lewistan · 2 years
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Lewis Tan as Lu Xin Lee in Fistful of Vengeance (2022)
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sergeifyodorov · 3 months
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ok im so new to hockey and ive been getting into leafs and theres just one thing i do not get at all 😭 which is.. is mitchy bad? ive seen people say that he is inconsistent (how long has he been inconsistent?) but ive also seen a LOT of dudebros hockey enthusiasts who say he’s bad and lazy and passes blame and want him to change lines or whatever so i dont really know???
mitch is.... very good actually
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let's start with current leafs records: active leader in points, assists, shorthanded goals. franchise leader in empty net goals.
also worth noting Wikipedia updates these stats after every season versus every game; mitch now has upwards of 600 points, and is the second-fastest leaf to 600, ever (he held the record for fastest for about 2 weeks -- auston beat him just after)
he also has the leafs' longest point streak -- 23 games
this is the general leafs leaderboard:
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someone appears on that list three times, and it isn't our chosen one am34! (again, this was just up until the end of last season)
Even beyond counting stats, he's still consistently one of the best Leafs around, because he plays defence, is one of the best passers in the league, and penalty-kills. Here's HockeyViz' breakdown of him:
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Those two images aren't aligned super well, but we're looking at the sG column on the far right, which is HockeyViz's "overall merit" metric. Here are stars of similar value:
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(Obviously, this one guy's metric is not the be-all end-all. But i find it a helpful guideline comparison to similar players -- essentially, Mitch is a one-tick-below superstar, in the tier below your Pastrnaks, M Tkachuks. (who are themselves the tier below Matthews/MacKinnon/Kucherov) "Bad" is a very funny word to use for these players. Bad comparable to McDavid, as if literally everyone else isn't.)
the People Hate Mitch thing is because of this entire personality construct they've developed around him -- he had really tough contract negotiations and signed for "more than he was worth" (aka a reasonable number given expectations of cap rising that did Not take into account a global pandemic coming into effect within a couple years), and the leafs' lack of playoff success (despite the fact that he is the Leafs' active playoff points leader). He's also not super well media trained and never seems to say the right words the right way, even if the obvious sentiment is there, and people who already want to hate on him just take it as further fodder for their complex.
Add that to the "concerns" about his relatively small frame that have been around forever and the ongoing Wendel Clark complex Toronto fans seem to have (ability and/or willingness to drop the gloves = grit = value) and you have a recipe for people that Hate Him For No Reason.
He is absolutely having an off year this year, and I don't know if he's got some nagging injury or whatever, but even in his off year he's one of the best Leafs.
I also think this is partly because of the underrating of Auston Matthews in comparison -- he's a generational goalscoring talent! He's a top three player in the league and he isn't number three! -- that Mitch is deemed "bad," because he's not quite as good as AM34 and we have determined that that means he's somehow Terrible. Sigh.
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lakesbian · 9 months
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Pact arc 3 question: I feel like Wildbow shines in writing interesting groups of characters. Now that we're off to Toronto, looking back at Jacob's Bell, we've seen a good number of the factions there so far. Which one really stood out to you? Did anyone surprise you from your initial impression of them? This doesn't need to be a rundown of all the factions, just whichever one really caught your eye.
none of the characters in jacob's bell have had any real element of surprise to their arcs thus far--they're all more or less exactly what they're initially presented as. this isn't to say that practitioners (& friends) can't have unexpected twists to their character writing, but i think the fact that they literally can't lie contributes significantly to how transparent they all are. because, y'know, when you can't lie it makes your whole Deal pretty obvious. they can only misdirect, and in addition to how the trick of those misdirections is revealed & easily understood after its impact is realized, the manner in which someone misdirects indicates plenty about them as well.
anyway. already posted about maggie here. from what i hear mara is just one extended wildbow moment which fucking sucks and also completely checks out w/ how her only appearance thus far is it being treated as like. weird and curmudgeony that she's mad about colonialism. briar girl is fun--the base concept of someone who got in over their head w/ a familiar that leads them rather than vice versa serves as a consistent reminder regarding the horror & danger of practicing, and also her familiar's design rocks. like i said a few posts down i enjoy the duchamp's particular brand of Cyclical Familial Violence. i love when theres cyclical familial violence in the cyclical familial violence book.
laird behaim is sort of grating in the sense that. reasonably speaking a Magic Police Officer in his position would not actually need magic to keep the legal system from holding him accountable! it's just like that by default! the fact that he's a constant reason to depict the police as being a fantastically (and i mean in the sense of "would never happen but in a fantasy") decent system full of useful good-hearted people who are failing due to Powers Beyond Their Comprehension is just sooo consistently grating. his characterization would Be Something if he was explicitly forcing himself into a high-ranking police position for the sake of the social authority & capital on state-sanctioned violence it would afford him, but instead his position is written as incidental and near-irrelevant to his power base. not how that fucking works! manifesting i will get to find out about the behaim's own special version of Cyclical Familial Violence soon and that it will be interesting so i can care about him more. bc right now he is getting a bad grade at having a compelling character schtick. his only saving grace is that he has fun magic.
johannes i appreciate 4 his "mechanism with which 2 hammer the horrible cruelty & fatality of the world blake and rose have found themselves in into their heads" swag. i enjoy terribleawful sibling dynamics so andy calling his sister a Relative rather than Family despite her being literally his only apparent connection endears me to the witch hunters. and of course i like padraic and friends for offering to get normalguy blake pregnant. favorite little guys remain blake and rose thus far though
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huang-er-jiejie · 9 months
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i have so many theories and just observations in general about good omens 2 i physically cannot keep them in my head so here they are
also these are very unorganized because i got them straight out of my notes app😭😭😭
crowley putting his sunglasses back on inside the bookshop for the first time in the season when he's about to leave after aziraphale asks him to go to heaven with him. that being him hiding his eyes so prevent aziraphale from seeing him cry but also symbolizing him putting a barrier back up between them for the first time in millennia
aziraphale saying "i'm big on forgiveness" foreshadowing the "i forgive you." after the kiss.
the "i forgive you line" also being a parallel to the same line in season one when crowley offers to run off to alpha centauri
the "dont bother." after aziraphale says i forgive you makes it feel so final, like he knows and accepts that he is beyond saving and there is no need for forgiveness. also her line in season 1 where he says "unforgivable, thats what i am."
nina and maggie are just a complete mirror of crowley and aziraphale, nina not being able to date maggie right away given shes just broken up with her abusive ex lindsay. and aziraphale not being able to be with crowley because hes healing from the trauma from heaven and he believes he can still fix heaven when you cant, you really cant. heaven is like a toxic ex she stays with because she thinks she can make it work and crowley is the obviously better and sound and caring option hes not ready for.
crowley having a nightingale sang in berkeley square ready to play in the bentley because he planned to play it while he and aziraphale were on the way to the ritz :(((
the way aziraphales face changes in the end credits you can literally see her rationalizing her decision; he starts smiling then going back to frowning, shes thinking of all the potential good she could do but at the same time it hurts her so much to leave.
beelzebub probably just wanted to find gabriel before heaven does so they can take care of him and run away with him maybe in peace without heaven's intervention 😭
crowley standing outside his car, waiting and hoping to see if aziraphale would come back or at least try to chase after him.
aziraphale seems like he looks out the window probably to where crowley is stood after the metatron asks if theres anything else he needs to bring. because he wanted to bring him, she wanted them to be together. but i also feel like for even at least a second when he looks outside, he wants to say no and stay.
this seems obvious but s1 is the creation, 2 the resurrection, and 3 is the second coming/ the judgement of the living and the dead
crowley isnt gonna make the first move again in s3 like,,, aziraphales gonna have to make the moves this time around and theres a chance that a part of crowley might not even think shes being genuine. shes bound to have doubts after what just happened. after being rejected all those times theres at least a part of him that thinks aziraphale doesnt love him, at least not in the way she loves him,,
i love the coffee theory because something is absolutely not right about aziraphale in the following scenes, and somethings not right with the metatron. him changing the phrasing of the amount of almond syrup in the coffee. the fact aziraphale NEVER drinks coffee, only ever tea and wine. cyanide being known to taste like almonds, and seeing what laudanum could do who know what different poisons could. the faint miracle sound effect when the metatron hands it over. and aziraphale being hesitant to take it but the metatron insisting. the smile he makes in the elevator is not at all like any smiles she's done before, it doesn't look like the smile he does when he fakes it, and doesn't look genuine or uncomfortable. it just looks so forced.
the coffee theory is kind of reductive though? like saying that the coffee was the sole reason aziraphale chose heaven, when it isn't. the coffee must have some sort of involvement because of the amount of focus put on a regular cup of coffee, but. i don't think a full on brainwashing thing. just sort of a push in the direction the metatron wants. but the rest? that was all aziraphale and his deep rooted religious trauma.
thats all i got for now so thanks for reading!!
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yanban-san · 2 years
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in regards to the little uncanny differences post; jokes on them, i can't make eye-contact to save my life and outright refuse to, for neurodivergent reasons. i usually look at a persons nose or at their forehead or behind them if i have to "make eye contact" with someone gsdhjKMGSDM--
but theres something to be celebrated about the differences between being human and being eldritch, isnt there? everyones teeth are different, and there are people are born with extra fingers, too! theres no helping it and its comforting in its own weird roundabout way that its like that for emmet and ingo, too. i also really like the idea of their hair being an extension of themselves because that makes hair petting when they're face deep in tiddy all the sweeter gshjJKMGDS-- that or like!! little kisses, pressed to the tops of their heads or along their hairline, even. i think they're more human than they give themselves credit for, but i might be a little biased.
that and im. realizing as im typing this that i may or may not have spent a little too much time with/on spot the difference games and catching a handful of every pokemon i could so i could find the gender differences (and ended up with no biney so theres another layer to that too so Yknow) buT!! something something im gonna start calling the both of them my night lights or the 'lights of my life' or something just as cheesy, because its nice and i love that i could be in a pitch black room with the both of them and still have some light. never has to be one or the other, the middle is just as good. - feather anon
CW: Mentions of angst so I'm putting it under the header as well as a little bit of body horror- But mostly cute fluffy goodness.
You might not be able to make eye contact with them but it's a little difficult to avoid making eye contact when they have literally hundreds of disembodied eyes they can encircle you with- :) They can't help it, you're just so nice to look at!
They're just, in their way, a little... upset by how their first meeting with you went. They don't want you to fear them, or hate them-! They want you to love them- Adore them-! As much as they do you! Be theirs- Forever and ever! Their inhuman-ness is a reminder that they have hurt you- And they still can. Which they hate. Their human mimicries are but a veil that prevents you from being hurt by them- So when their bodies start breaking/melting- When that veil is shattered- They get fearful. They aren't just concerned with safety checks because they're Subway Bosses, you know!
But it would make them melt to know their Darling adores them no matter what scary tentacle-eye-mouth-dragon-beast-incomprehensible geometrical structure-things lurk beneath their skin.
Emmet collapsing into your arms, staring up at you adoringly with a ring of his eyes opening around you languidly- Even if he's worried about showing you his true self, the fact you find it adorable that he wants to look at you so closely and be so close to you has him beyond blissful- A contented smile on his face as he looks up at you. His voidal, extraneous eyes look like hollow windows into darkness- glittering with some distant light in the very back of them. You feel his arms tighten around you, and you can feel something soft gliding around you, though- It's not visible.
Ingo holding you gently in his arms, seated on his lap- Worried that you might have just been being polite when you told him you'd love all of him, no matter what- You focusing on a book you're reading or something on your computer- Only to glance up and see enlarged, slitted pupils staring at you- Far too many to fit in Ingo's eyes, and that you're half submerged in inky shadows dripping and clutching at your clothing. He quickly apologizes, pulling his hat down- But you flick it off to look into his pretty, shadowy eyes, giggling at how bashful he's being! And the older demon's face softens in a way it hasn't in a very long time as he pulls you against him, nuzzling against you.
i also really like the idea of their hair being an extension of themselves because that makes hair petting when they're face deep in tiddy all the sweeter gshjJKMGDS-- that or like!! little kisses, pressed to the tops of their heads or along their hairline, even. i think they're more human than they give themselves credit for, but i might be a little biased.
<3
They nuzzle into your tiddies and suddenly their knife-sideburns are also wrapping around your breasts as well, gently stroking and tickling- Their hair flexes and bristles with every touch, and, in their own ways, they get annoyed if you stop touching them-! Emmet grabs your hand and places it back on his head eagerly- Ingo, however, just looks up at you with the most pitiful expression- Wrapping his arms around you even tighter. A dark sigh leaves his form as he silently pleads for you to return to your ministrations- His hair flexing and twitching without your touch. At least he will use his words if you neglect him too long.
And if you kiss their hair? It elicits the rare happy whine from the two. Ingo leans into it, before trying to kiss you back- Emmet demands more kisses! He might as well be headbutting you- Give him more kisses!
i think they're more human than they give themselves credit for, but i might be a little biased.
They do become more human as time goes on; The longer they spend around you, the longer they spend among mortals, the easier it is to maintain their human appearances- Not that they want to, per se, but it does become easier. And Eldritch demons are more humanish in some ways- When mimicking mortal life, at least. They may be very powerful, and possess forbidden knowledge of the arcane and all that other weird jazz, but for all their greatness, they are imperfect. That imperfection is vital to understanding humans, whether they realize it or not.
buT!! something something im gonna start calling the both of them my night lights or the 'lights of my life' or something just as cheesy, because its nice and i love that i could be in a pitch black room with the both of them and still have some light. never has to be one or the other, the middle is just as good
This is really adorable Feather- Calling Ingo a light of your life when the only thing that really lights up on him is his eyes would actually be very endearing to him too.
And you think they want to be apart and only one on one with you? Of course not, they are sandwiching you in between their impossibly long tails and cuddling you in a big Demon pile! No better way to spend the night. Or the morning. Or maybe an afternoon nap. Or maybe an early night- Or even just laying together. Just- They really like holding you. Reallllly like holding you.
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Yep! The thing is their physical bodies are not internally at all like a human's body. It wouldn't hurt him a lot, but...
Ingo would be very upset for a host of reasons, irregardless of how much or how little it hurt- There may be personal, eldritch reasons for this, or Ingo could simply be being the overprotective big Eldritch Brother.
Emmet and Ingo both have many hands and claws and tendrils to kiss- And they'll adore every kiss you bestow upon them.
Just be warned they will return them a hundred fold. You will be kissed for a very long time. :)
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taki118 · 1 year
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SuyaLight Master Post Part 10
I really like these two there’s not a lot of content for the fandom as a whole soooo here’s my submission as I get every moment of these two royals who literally share a braincell (and I love them for it) First up this is just on the manga if you are anime only its going to have stuff you havent seen, yes even with what the anime covers (so read it) and there will be spoilers so beware. If you prefer Demon Monk/Cleric/Leo (which I don’t really get) I am sorry this isnt for you. Lets go! Part 1 is here Part 2 is here Part 3 is here Part 4 is here Part 5 is here Part 6 is here Part 7 is here Part 8 is here Part 8.5 is here Part 9 is here
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So this chapter Leo is being well a little unsettling he doesn’t like the easy going nature between Suya and Twilight and poor Musican is the only one aware of how close Twilight is to death. 
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Like they are very oblivious its amazing they havent died.
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Poor Twilight he just wants to help with the birds.
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Leo leaves cause he notices his interest in Suya is kinda.....not great (dudes like two levels below a yandere who traps his interest in a room) so he leaves a letter to explain himself.
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So they go to track him down and bring him back, I love how instep Twilight and SUya are. They both look so evil too.
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Now I think it’s important that its not just Suya who notices but Twilight and Siberian. WHile its def not normal its good to show that its just something certain people do.
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This is again proof to me that Twilight is a better match for Suya. While Leo is over here wanting to monopolize her and guilting over the fact that it could ruin everything beyond his interest in her. Twilight wants the world wider for me to be there. I can say that this would not happen were the roles reveresed.
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Again Suya is all ready to tease Leo but Twilight is trying to help him. (Whos really the demon here?)
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They obviously get the wrong idea.
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I think had this been an earlier chapter Suya woulda milked this misunderstanding.
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They all know her MO
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They know something is up, and Twilight thinks he’s really got her here.
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She made a teddy casino (no idea why) 
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But he actually did like it.
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They actually have quite similiar tastes.
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This chapter is really cute. So theres a storm and its really bad so Suya wants to sleep in Twilights room. Why exactly?
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I thinks its in part because she thinks the Kings room would be safest (though i think the ch shows us the REAL reason soon) but Twilight allows it cause he sees no harm.
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But Siberian is also cowering here (I love when the series reminds us he is in fact a dog)
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Look just saying it’s like a person loving their partners pet.
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But i think the real reason Siberian is here is to show the real reason Suya came to Twilight.
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They both feel safest beside him.
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Despite everything I think Twilight likes being needed by the two. 
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silentxxsoul · 2 years
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The 'this is going to be hella chaotic bc its week 3 wee woo and week 4 tyler higbee please go off i need the points' reaction dump
Listen I'm like deadlocked this week in fantasy football and really need my guy Tyler to show OUT against the 49ers but I'm also invested in all things Bathena so this could not be a worse scenario for my mediocre focusing skills.
I've got so many screens going at once idk how this is gonna go lmao
Lord help me when its playoff baseball and NHL bc 💀
Anyway, gimme all the Bathena tonight PLEASE. I feel like we've only really gotten crumbs from them since COVID hit and Peter and Angela took a step back (also Angela filming BP2), and I'm so, so hyped for more1
ELI MANNING HAS HIS PUPPY ON SET THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH HARDER THAN I THOUGHT BC NOW THERES A GD DOGGO IN THE MIX
The way the actress is playing Athena's mom is talking with her hands is soooo Athena. IDK if it was a conscious decision or not but I love that little detail.
Man, that had to be so terrifying and traumatizing for her
The fact that the foundation was so exposed is sus, but also the timeline is hella confusing. I feel like Jr's dad was only mentioning it so that Athena would question her dad more and not look at him, the guy who poured the foundation. Plus the odd looks Junior was giving his dad--the man knows something.
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Bobby being supportive husband ♥♥♥
my lil tyler bud out there doing tight end thins
Honestly, props to Athena for recognizing she really doesn't know who her dad is beyond her house. A lot of family members can't take the blinders off (literally happening in my family rn) or refuse to entertain the idea their family members might be a bad person.
Wait - they both snuck out ??? I mean, that explains the quick change from wanting to shoot Athena point blank and then inviting her inside, but yikes
Something definitely happens at this party, I can feel it. Then Junior and his dad cover up by hiding her body in the foundation. That's the reason for the girls hearing the truck...
Also, I'm still not convinced JR isn't a bit sus outright, especially after the comment about chasing Athena around. He's clearly older--old enough to be passable for drinking age, probably 15/16/17, so that's 10ish on Athena. It's a bit gross to think he was chasing her or however they worded it being that much older than her.
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Bobby is about to lose his shit. Like I can see why he'd take her in, but also I can't actually believe they're taking her in.
Is he going to try something ??
Well, actually he is but you don't know that yet
Oh lord Bobby WHAT ARE YOU DOING BY YOURSELF WE ESTABLISHED THERE WAS A MURDER/COVERUP AND YOU DON'T HAVE A WEAPON
I AM STRESSED
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BOBBY GO HOME
OH NO OH NO OH NO
THIS IS GOING TO END SO BADLY LIKE SOMEONE ELSE IS GONNA BE DEAD DEAD I CAN FEEL IT
Oh look Matty boy got sacked again lololol
oh christ woman why didn't you put it up?
I FUCKING KNEW IT WAS THE KID HIS DAD WAS JUST COVERING FOR HIS SON BUT LIKE WTF BRO IN YOUR FRIENDS HOUSE ???
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Unrelated but Kittle my guy, I'm gonna need you to get some yards here in the next 3 quarters okay?
Always with the villain monologue. I remember in the promo Athena clocked a dude with a shovel and I was pretty sure it was Jr, so like give it a little more oomph
I mean this dude is a fucking creep, right?
YEP A FUCKING CREEP
I HATE THAT I CLOCKED IT
YALL END THIS MAN
THANK YOU BOBBY THANK YOU
KICK HIS ASS THE PERVERT
YALL THIS IS FUCKING TRAGIC AND I HATE IT
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kinda poetic it's going to end here though, she can get her peace while he gets justice where it all happened.
Okay, so I knew this was going to be a heavy episode but holy shit was this a heavy episode I mean ----
Holy shit there were more
holy
holy
JESUS H CHRIST
IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE
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I'm just
stunned
like
holy shit that ending
I -
I need 3-5 bus days to process yall bc WHAT
Like, this was such a good episode. I know people will be booing because it was Bathena only "aNd noT tHe 118", but y'all this was fucking fantastic. The acting, the story, the execution. Like, the TWISTS. I knew it was likely to be a plot of this kind but the way they got there I was not expecting. Also, to get the supportive!Bobby and his dad-glasses moments ?? S - W - O - O - N
Plus bad ass Athena again? Clocking the shit out of that creep? Doing detective things with her hubby? In this economy??
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((tyler you're doing great sweetie!!!))
((coop buddy I NEED YOU IN THE END ZONE NOT IN FRONT OF IT))
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drundertalescum · 3 years
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The Scene With Undyne Sitting Across The Table From You: An Analysis
So Undyne lied to Papyrus. She led him on about the Guard, and she wasn’t honest with him. She didn’t actually train him. She was never going to let him in the guard.
We all know this.
I think something that people don’t think about, though, is the rest of that conversation, and Why she handled that situation the way she did. This is something I have fallen into a lot, too, because Papyrus is my favorite and I have a bad habit of focusing on him… but I think I wanna explore this from Undyne’s point of view instead.
Because it’s really interesting, isn’t it? 
Throughout the game, Undyne is otherwise portrayed as being as empathetic as she is direct. There is no problem that she can’t suplex or headbutt! She’ll eat a rock! She’ll fight the sun! But she won’t tell Papyrus she can’t let him into the guard.
A lot of the time, I think we read this conversation as being revealing of who Papyrus is. It gets used a lot as fuel to infantilize him. In fact, seeing something about that is actually why I wanted to write this. Additionally, this conversation where she reveals this is where she tells us about Asgore’s sadness, his fatherly tendencies and his strength and his nature beyond being the not-so-final boss. 
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[Image Description:  Undyne is sitting across the table from you. You’re in her house. The window’s been smashed, and the table, too, with a spear sticking out of it, and she’s left some things on the stove and theres just a sword in the middle of her floor, but it’s calm for now. Various things are left on her counter. You’re both drinking tea.]
But this is Undyne’s conversation on Undyne’s hangout and this conversation is meant to make us understand Undyne. 
So, here’s my take:
I think Undyne is not good with emotions beyond the obvious, and she uses others and their experiences and emotions as examples and ways to understand and work through her own emotions and complicated, shifting thoughts. She’s not gonna tell a human kid her anxieties, because thats not the kind of person she is. She’s direct whenever she can be, but these are not matters she can be direct with. She’s a fighter, not a philosopher. 
She starts this conversation by telling you you remind her of Asgore, because...
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[Image Description:  Undyne is sitting across the table from you. She’s throwing her head back laughing at you, probably obnoxiously. She says “You’re both TOTAL weenies!!!” with three exclamation points, and “total” in all caps.]
She calls Asgore a TOTAL WEENIE, then relents, and says he’s not a weenie all of the time. That’s when she tells us the story of how she tried to beat him up when she was little, to prove she was the strongest, and how that leads her to become his apprentice, and how she eventually knocked him down.
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[Image Description: Undyne is sitting across the table from you. Her eyes are closed, her head is bowed. She says “I felt… bad.”]
She felt bad.
Undyne is expressing with that that she used to value strength above all else, and viewed the world through that very narrow lens. She’s surpassed Asgore, at least in one match, and that should have been a victory for her, but instead the situation lead to an emotion she hadn’t expected: She felt bad. And Asgore was so proud of her.
And then she tells us about Papyrus, and this is the same thought as the other story, because she’s expressing that the role she’s taken on as Head of the Royal Guard is her graduating to a leadership position like Asgore’s. 
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[Image Description: Undyne is sitting across the table from you. She says “So I’m the one who gets to train dorks to fight!” She’s throwing her head back laughing. Not at you this time.]
She introduces Papyrus to this story then, and starts with saying she doesn’t know if she could ever let him in.
I think an important phrasing there is that she doesn’t know. This is not a solid open and shut decision. She hesitates and stumbles over this admission. She does not know if she’s going to let him in. She doesn’t think she is, but she doesn’t know. 
She’s stuck. I know you could say this is just a matter of phrasing, and might not seem significant, but the way she stumbles over explaining herself, its like she’s trying to work out right now exactly why she won’t let him in. And she’s maybe only realizing now that the answer was always going to be no.
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[Image Description:  Undyne is sitting across the table from you. She says “I mean, it’s not that he’s weak.” She’s grinning... but she’s sweating it out a little.]
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[Image Description: Undyne is sitting across the table from you. She says “He’s actually pretty freaking tough!” Her eyes bulge with passion!  ]
She’s quick to say its not that he’s weak, and that he’s pretty freaking tough - really strong praise from Undyne, who just called you and the King of All Monsters total weenies - and then she starts talking about how he’s too innocent and nice! And how he was supposed to capture you, but ended up being friends with you instead!!!
And… again, a lot of people are quick to read this as a flaw in Papyrus. A fully literal assessment of him by Undyne. But is it?
There is a reason she’s telling you this. 
There’s a reason she’s emphasizing this to you: Look where she is right now. 
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[Image Description: Undyne is sitting across the table from you.]
She was supposed to capture you.
 But instead, she’s making friends with you.  
If this is a flaw in Papyrus, this scene is her admitting to herself and to you, that this is a flaw that exists in her too.
But also, this scene, with her stumbling over herself talking about weakness, strength, weenies, not weenies… is her also realizing, through Papyrus, through Asgore through you: 
This was never a flaw at all.
She’s different than Papyrus. She goes harder. She’s more willing to kill you. She’s more willing to push forward. But this scene is her coming to terms with a hesitation she’s been struggling with, a bad feeling when she finally makes her opponent fall, an urge she doesn’t seem to have fully thought through to teach Papyrus something else. This wasn’t a long term plan. There was no long term plan. She doesn’t know if she can ever let him in. She’s trying to delay having to make that decision, because she doesn’t fully understand the decision, or at least she didn’t until right now, sitting down across from the enemy and sharing something she’s always shared with someone she very much cares about. 
Undyne didn’t know how to deal with the fact that she might not want to go to war after all, until the very moment that became an option. It was abstract before. It was easy before. But she’s had her doubts and finally now she understands them. And she’s trying to express this to you now at the same time as she’s trying to understand it.
And now that all this is out of the way and she can stop thinking about it, she’s going to work on befriending you AS HARD AS SHE CAN!!!
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[Image Description: Undyne is no longer sitting across the table from you. She has lept onto the counter behind her, and knocked everything to the floor. She’s thrown her head back and is grinning widely, challenging you to cook with her! “Fuhuhu!!! Afraid!?” she asks, and you can tell from her punctuation that she’s very excited about this. “We’re gonna be best friends!!!” ]
Anyway, I love Undyne, and I felt like this was a scene that needed more attention in her direction, because it’s not about Asgore and it’s not about Papyrus. It’s about her, our terrifying new bestie.
(also thank you @weia-yo​​ for helping me with analyzing this scene months ago. Only just now had the necessary spoons to write it up)
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fairycosmos · 3 years
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Hello, I hope you’re having a nice day! There’s something I wondered, and I really hope it’s not selfish. I’ve wondered for a while but wasn’t sure it was appropriate to ask. It really sucks to see someone so down, you seem like a good person, and deserve some freedom! So I suppose, when you talk about your loss, how you’ve been left with so much, how grief is a terrible burden, which is completely reasonable. Do you ever feel angry? Maybe angry at your sister? I know it’s not good to place unjust blame and let those feelings consume you, but just from an outside view it’s upsetting that you were the one left with such a burden! It seems cruel to me, I can’t help feeling like tour situation would naturally make someone angry at the person they lost. Is it like that? I’m really sorry if this is an ignorant thing to ask.
hey dw it's not ignorant at all, it's cool. this is going to be long but it's the only way to explain the complexities of what you asked so sorry about that! im definitely really angry. the intensity of it comes and goes, but there's always this undercurrent of rage that i literally can't let go of. ive mentioned this before, but when she first died, every time i tried to speak to her outloud (like everyone told me to) it would just end up with me lecturing her. like a parent. i could not and still can't believe what she's done, even if it wasn't intentional. i cant stand it. i feel frustrated to the point of tears that she wasn't more careful, that she didn't perceive enough value in herself and her life to take care of herself properly. because she was quite literally the most amazing person ive ever known, and i can not fathom that she would be so careless and that she would gamble her safety like that. the last few weeks were so enraging, she just wouldn't listen. it was like she was very suddenly a different person, and i'm still carrying a lot of frustration because of that. on a related note, we used to joke all the time that dealing with our family, and with the future, would be hell if we didn't have each other - she used to tease me like, what would you do without me? - and now i'm so beyond mad that that is my reality. and it will be forever because of her actions. i'm alone in the worst way without her and i can't put into words how mad i am because of it. it feels almost mocking. sometimes i look at her pictures and think, you're laughing at me right now. even though i know that's not fair. she would be fucking devastated to see that things turned out this way. she would spend forever apologising, but ultimately i still don't think shes got anything to be sorry for. she was struggling in a way i never have, above all else.
i'm really pissed off at the nature of her death and at the nature of grief, too. i think all the time about how unlucky she was, about how her shitty boyfriend abused drugs for years and hes still alive - the whole fucking world takes them. i don't understand why she died and how it happened so quickly, i just don't get it. theres a lot about that actual overdose that makes me deranged with anger too, i can barely talk about that part. and mourning itself is so frustrating. i'm incredibly angry at how permanent it is, how isolating, how nobody seems to get it. and how anyone has the audacity to think i should care about the world, or about my own life, or anything. my best friend died, everything else is background noise. the fact that i'm expected to keep going is a fucking joke. i'm also super mad at my family, which i'll never say to them, but i am. maybe they just shouldn't have fucking had kids if they were going to let them turn out like this. obviously the person i'm most angry at is myself, because i should have done more. i go on about how she was the person i loved the most in this world, and look at how she ended up. i'll never stop being pissed at myself for not checking on her more that night, or for not dragging her to a rehab center, even if i know logically it wasn't that simple back then. she'd have told me she was taking care of it, she'd have lied. but yeah, when i think about it, the outline of this whole situation is just absolute unadulterated fury.
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luidilovins · 3 years
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So you guys can get a glimpse into my inner psyche and because I'm bored here's my top ten favorite movies.
10.) The Fly (1986)
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I love this film. All the grutesque special effects, the age old poeticism of man reaching too far playing god and the more beast than man that ends in romantic tragedy, the brillant story from the first The Fly (1958) all these concepts are just coated with a thin film of Jeff Golblum completely ruining it beyond belief. This was a cinematic disaster that I will always treasure.
9.) The Abyss
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Aside from underwater cave spelunking i cannot think of a landscape that instills the level of dread that The Abyss provokes. It was one of the very first films to sport CGI and it still holds up fairly well today. The film really captures the alieness that we have on our own planet and reminds us how every small and out of control we are without looking to the stars and I really appriciate that.
8.) Paranorman
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I've said it before and I'll say it again: this is Laika Studio's most underrated film. Kubo and the Two Strings who? I think what I like so much about this movie is because Norman could very easily be interpreted as an allegory for childhood psychosis, and as an adult recently diagnosed with schizofrenia and watching this film again, I can see a lot of parrallels from my own childhood and how it felt to experience the world in a way nobody could relate to.
7.) Nausicaa Valley of the Wind
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This movie really just said "the damage we leave on oyr planet will make the world uninhabitable to us but nature will luve on without giving us a second thought." The ecopunk, the fungi, the art and musical scores, the ambiguity of good and evil, and whatever genre that has broken down "old" technology that's still highly advanced. This movie is amazing I have nothing but good things to say about it.
6.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
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Hands down my favorite Disney movie. The cute animals and magical shit is so minimal to the film's overall plot it feels almost detacched from Disney's other golden era works. That scene where Quazimodo stands on top of the Stained glass and screams "SANCTUARY" sacrificing everything he knows against catholic inquisition for an innocent marginalized woman??? Where is that passion NOW Disney??? Where is it???
5.) My Neighbor Totoro
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This is one of those films thats intensely emotionally charged for me. I was the eldest sibling and had a sick mom. The raw power of emotional energy this film posesses to the point where you don't even notice that it has no plot? It knocks me off my feet every time.
4.) SLC Punk
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this film has an unbelievably good balance of cynicism and revere for punk culture. Its critical in a fun way and its got that guy that went on to play Shaggy later. Literally theres this scene where the mc explains exactly why they beat the shit out of Skinheads and Neo Nazis for fun. Thers this one scene where they go down to Wyoming and fuck with a bunch if bible thumpers by attemting to summon Satan there is NO reason you shouldn't watch this movie.
3.) Chicken Run
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I know I know. You're thinkin this would be my FIRST favorite. This isn't the Vic I know and love you say. Its ONE of my top favorites but it's the film i watch the MOST OFTEN. I have every scene memorized cuz its burnt in the back of my noggin. I used to get yelled at by my parents sometimes for hours and I used to watch Chicken Run in my head scene by scene just so I didn't have to listen to their bullshit. The thought of these chickens escaping their living situation from a woman who looks WEIRDLY like my mom was appealing to me for some reason.
2.) The Labrynth
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This film is without argument is good. Its a Jim Henson Studio film that's why. Obviously. But as an adult I realized exactly how much this movie means to me. The fact that this girl could look into the eyes of a man who has ALL this control over every aspect of her and find the will and courage to tell him that he has no power over her. And she did it for a sibling because her bond with her brother is more strong than her fear or allure of Jereth? Every obstacle that she faced was impossible until she made friends and with their talents and traits it was one thread cut from the web that imprisoned Sarah? This, this. Yeah. Maybe my interpretation isn't all that acccurate but to that I say fuck you?
1.) The Monster Squad (1987)
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This movie wanted to be The Goonies. So. Bad. The sheer DESPERATION laced in this film is what makes it genuinely terrible. The kids arguing over whether or not Wolfman has balls and then proceed to kick him in the balls and proving that Wolfman does indeed have balls? I mean the montage scene??? This film it just tops all right?
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kaitosimp · 3 years
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Okay listen- I fucking suck at art and it's the first time I use procreate (with my fingers no less) so please excuse how shitty this is (though it does look kinda better when you click on it, idk wHY TF IT LOOKS BLURRY) bUT LOOK, here's what's been living in my head rent free for like two whole months: Ultimate Detective Kaito! 👁👄👁
I may or may not have started writing a talentswap fic with detective!Kaito a while back and I just loved how he looked in my head so I had to somehow draw him with my limited af art skills, this took me forever lol 🥲 KAITO WITH HIS HAIR DOWN/LOW PONYTAIL SUPREMACYYYYYY
ANYHOW, HAVE SOME FUN FACTS:
⭐ He's the youngest dective in the country
⭐ His grandpa was a detective, as a kid Kaito used to help him solve simple cases and from there came his love of it
⭐ Hopes Peak tried scouting him numerous times, but Kaito always declined and gave the same excuse: he had no time for school since being a detective took up all his time
⭐ However, due to the school's reputation that one would be set for life and have endless success upon graduation, it made him think- he really wanted to go to space at least once, a silly dream he's had since he was a kid, so hey, who said he couldn't be both a detective and an astronaut? Maybe if he graduated from Hopes Peak, he could be easily accepted into an astronaut program or something of the like
⭐ His dream of wanting to go to space was the sole reason he accepted the headmaster's invitation, but nobody knows that was the reason he joined
⭐ His suspenders were previously owned by his grandpa, he gave them to Kaito and said they always brought him luck when investigating
⭐ When it comes to catching bad guys or closing in on suspects, he's beyond reckless, he'll literally throw himself on the front line to solve a case
⭐ Aside from helping his grandpa do investigations as a kid, he loved to stargaze and look at the moon, he grew a fondness for space things that never went away
⭐ He can't stand the sight of blood and guts, it reminds him of those horror movies he hates, but he never lets it show how much he hates being at gruesome crime scenes
⭐ When stuck on a particularly hard case, he'll take a step back and will just stargaze for a while to clear his head before diving back in
⭐ He fucking loves his coat and will fight anyone who calls it ugly
⭐ He spends all his free time in his room/lab working and investigating, his classmates have to physically drag him out so he can take breaks
⭐ He prefers working alone, he knows he's brash and hot headed and way too passionate about his work and that has caused friction when working with some investigators in the past, however he knows the importance of working with others when its necessary and is actually a pretty good leader and team player
⭐ "A case is a case" is his motto, meaning he takes on any case that comes across his desk no matter what it is, so some days he's investigating brutal murders and other days he's looking for lost pets, there's no in between
AND UM YEAH, CAN WE PRETEND HIS SLACKS ARE SO TIGHT THERES NO CREASES? THANKS CAUSE YA GIRL DON'T KNOW HOW TO DRAW CLOTHES 😔✋🏽
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tundrainafrica · 3 years
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All the HCs and side materials aside, who do you think was closer to Levi, Erwin or Hange? While there was this acker host thing with Erwin but it was debunked. Meanwhile he hasn't even acknowledged Hange's sacrifice even once so theres that too.
Oh god, so yes I have wanted to answer this ask for a while, thought of pushing it until night time today but I got locked out of the office though thirty minutes before my shift so let me just cope with the stress by giving my feedback on this because I feel like I have already explained my side to a lot of people but I’d rather have it immortalized in my blog at this point. 
Okay first question
Who do you think was closer to Levi, Erwin or Hange?
I find this question thought provoking but I don’t like these types of questions because they tend to start fights? And they tend to cause unnecessary drama both in real life and online. And relationships are so hard to quantify like of course there's a clear line between acquaintance and best friend but the nuances between siblings, lover, best friend and parent are a little more complex because we all have a lot of people we care about deeply but can we easily say who we love more?
(this is still a great question though anon, thank you for asking it.)
It’s literally like the epitome of asking ur parents “who’s your favorite child” or “who do you love more your best friend for so many years or your girl friend of like two years who you met, clicked then realized they were the love of your life.” Who will you save when in a burning building? your wife? Or your parents? Or your siblings? Your best friend?
Such problematic questions which I think a lot of us in our lives would rather never have to answer, especially in front of our loved ones. 
I am not making assumptions about what type of relationship Levi had with Erwin or what type of relationship Levi had with Hange in this post because I don’t wanna start shipping wars in this very peaceful website. (But, I ship Levihan and will probably die with this ship close to my heart so you can make assumptions about my opinions on Levi and Hange’s relationship based on that.) 
But the point is, Erurihan has always been special. Levi held a lot of people close to his heart over the years but I found that trio to have notably been the closest and Erwin and Hange have changed Levi’s lives the most. 
Would Levi have played favorites between them?? NO. Because Erwin and Hange were such different people that putting them side by side and thinking “who did Levi love more”  is like comparing apples to oranges, putting them side by side and thinking which fruit tastes better.
Because Hange and Erwin offered different things to Levi. Literally, Erwin became that next purpose for Levi after he lost his two best friends. He saw wonder in Erwin’s eyes, he saw a leader, he saw someone who can guide him to a bigger purpose and he trusted Erwin so deeply and Erwin trusted him back and even as a Levihan fan, I might actually admit that early on in the series, Levi was probably much closer to Erwin than Hange. Fine I admit it he probably was. 
But Hange offered something else to Levi. While Erwin offered a path, Hange offered wonder, curiosity. She offered Levi things to think about beyond the survey corps job. I mean Erwin was practically married to his job right. Hange was practically married to her job too but I found Hange more... approachable? Warmer overall? I mean if you actually see Eren’s interactions with the three of them or you watch from Season 1, you would realize that Hange was really the most approachable survey corps veteran from the start (other than petra).
And I think Levi really appreciated that part of her and saw it as something worth entertaining. He completely believed in Erwin, Erwin gave him a purpose in life but Hange was the one who added color to it, she actually added something beyond that purpose. She made him feel things he probably wouldn’t have felt elsewhere. 
Annoyance? Anger? Defeat at how someone could be so enthusiastic and dense? Curiosity? Someone who might have made him think that maybe, soldiering and survey corps-ing and almost being eaten by titans everyday wasn’t so bad. And maybe there is joy in the domestic in betweens?  
Another thing, here’s what Hange had that Erwin didn’t have, she had the luxury of time, she also had the luxury of circumstances on her side, of having been the only one left out of the veterans for Levi to cling on to. This made it more natural for a deeper friendship and relationship to develop between the two. So if Hange is closer to Levi than Erwin is, then it’s because of the circumstances that it made it so, post season 3.
If Erwin lived, the dynamics of erurihan would have definitely developed differently. But I never considered the possibiliy of Erwin living instead of Hange since Levi picking Armin just felt really in character and right for me. So yeah, it’ll probably stay a shallow speculation until the end haha.  
And about this second question...
“Meanwhile he hasn't even acknowledged Hange's sacrifice even once so theres that too.” 
Yo. Just a reminder, Hange died like roughly an hour or two ago manga time. Levi is literally internally bleeding, the shit show just never stopped for a second and for some reason people are expecting Levi to give a nod at Hange’s death. 
Okay yes, she did mean a lot to him. But lemme give you the explanation which has been sticking to me for a really long time.  
Levi is clowning. Like literally, I don’t think he has even acknowledged that Hange is dead yet. We have concrete hints that he is. After ‘dedicate your heart’ he just walked away and didn’t look back. It’s in the fact that he didn’t even look out the window to watch her die and in the fact that his last words were “see you later” like I’m pretty sure he’s thinking to himself “Yeah, like I know she is probably gonna die objectively but… Just, what if… she lives?? 
Just like all of us Hange stans in the website yo with our beast titan theory, Levi is just the biggest clown of us all (since he is the biggest Hange stan anyway...).  He decided (unconsciously or consciously) to ‘pretend’ that Hange’s still alive maybe until the end of the war just so that he could possibly function at least (?). 
I mean I’m pretty sure we’ve all done this in our lives. Especially when we’ve lost someone we’ve loved dearly or maybe when we’re saying good bye to someone in the airport where we’re just laughing our heads off with that person all the way until the departure gate when they say good bye and we only break down when we’re home alone. Like I’m pretty sure it’s similar for people who have lost someone, kept themselves busy with funeral preparations and memorial services and only start experiencing the loss when they go back to normal life and realize they have to clean out someone’s bedroom or fix their daily routine to adjust to the loss of that loved one.
Maybe Levi will finally acknowledge it when everything goes back to normal and he finds Hange’s office empty and he realizes he doesn’t have his buddy to have tea with every night. And if Yams decides not to write or insert that, I’ll probably just speculate it myself and keep this theory alive. 
I actually wrote a drabble about this a long time ago. You can read it here.
Anyway, thanks for reading! 
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symphonyofthewrite · 3 years
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Saw your post, getting stuff off your chest, I just wanted to say that I haven't seen the thing with the kids mentioned by anyone and it really stood out to me, I feel what you mean to some extent, because for me it was a stronger reaction, albeit you probably won't feel the same and that's, obviously, perfectly fine. I have an instant recoil these days whenever a character is around kids for like one second and everyone instantly goes "THEY LITERALLY ADOPTED THEM/THAT'S THEIR CHILD/THEY'RE A PARENT"... genuinely sick of it, and I went white as a sheet when I heard it, I wanted to pluck my eyes out. I don't know if it's an American thing but English speaking fandoms (well, those teeming with fancops that is) seem like they cannot process adult looking characters being in any near proximity to childlike characters without automatically imposing parenthood and family dynamics and it's becoming distressing to me. I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me.
Thank you so much for the ask!! I don’t get many asks so it makes me happy when I can talk meta with people 💛💛 (Sorry I’m a bit late in answering.)
Funnily enough I actually do agree with you. I didn’t have quite so strong a reaction, but I definitely had a very similar one when I first hear it.
My feelings were and are a bit mixed. I was saying in my other post that I would have preferred that I got to actually see this interaction; see the kids run by him and call him father, and him smile when no ones looking. I still think that would have been a better, more touching way to do the scene, and would have had more chance of me liking it (though I probably still would have felt very weird about it). (I think it especially would have been better because it would show that Alucard himself liked it, not that Greta was forcing the role on him.) I know that it was meant to be something touching, and pretty much everyone seems to like it (and I have seen some cute posts about it), so I just tried to like it too, and focus on the fact that all they were really trying to say was he was having a nice relationship with the kids, and that was indeed sweet.
But yeah, when I heard Greta say “I heard some of them calling you father” for me it was less a reaction of horror, and more a “HUH??!!”moment. When I heard it I was like “Alucard...you agree with this???!! This is how you see yourself??!!” I almost expected Alucard to refute it and say he didn’t see himself as a father to them. Like I seriously do not see Alucard as anything remotely close to a father figure, and it felt weird and wrong to me.
Like when I saw him interacting with the kids the first time, I didn’t think “oh he’s a father figure to them.” I just thought “yay, Alucard’s playing with some kids, and getting out of his bubble!!” I didn’t have any thoughts as to what his relationship role was with them, I just thought that first interaction was lovely.
And if I saw him interacting with the kids again, I still wouldn’t go “father figure” I’d just be like “yay, Alucard’s playing with the kids again, how sweet!!”
Sometimes the relationship doesn’t need a role or a label, ya know?
And I thought it was especially strange because…he literally just met them?? Like how can they possibly start calling him father when he’s played with them once or twice? Regardless of Alucard’s side or things, what group of kids would randomly call a nice man they just met ‘father’? Is...Is this a normal thing??
Anyways, back to Alucard’s side of things, Sypha’s line about Alucard being a teenager trapped an adults body has always been something that stuck with me and shaped how I view Alucard. I definitely view him as internally much younger than he looks. No matter how much I might hate them for what they did to him, I think Sumi and Take are about the age he actually is, and their relationship with him made sense to me. He’s still a kid—or at least young—he still needs his parents in his life, really. (That’s part of why I didn’t like that Drac and Lisa don’t go to him at the end. I personally don’t think Alucard really got closure, and in my mind I think he still very much needed them, and that would have been the perfect ending to his story in my mind, where everything comes full circle; He was forced to lose his parents and grow up too early, and only when he’s started to truly grow up does he get them back.) So yeah, I really don’t see him like a father at all. One of my main focuses in my Castlevania fanfiction is his relationship with Dracula, so I very much see him as the son, not as the dad, even when Drac isn’t around.
(Sidenote, come to think of it, I think this is another reason why Greta x Alucard is a nope from me. She’s very much an adult, so I just see a discrepancy between them that makes me feel weird about them being in a romantic relationship. If we need a label I feel like she fits as an older sister for him, guiding him and giving him support. Him unloading all his problems on her within just meeting her makes more sense if he’s like a younger brother who needs to cry to his sister. I felt weird about it in a romantic context when it was so fast. I mean I know he was desperate to talk to someone, and I probably would have done the same, but still).
“I feel like Alucard needed to process his trauma and learn to trust and be whole again, he's young himself too, why he needed to be a "father figure" all of a sudden is beyond me”
^^ THIS. EXACTLY THIS.
I was honestly really hoping they’d go in depth into him dealing with his trauma, and how he’s still hurting from the wounds of it, and how he needs to heal. I thought that’s what his S4 arc would be about. I don’t think they gave him the chance to really process and work through everything that happened. (Again, I don’t think him just unloading all his problems on a nice stranger is truly working through his trauma. I would have much rather watched him struggle to trust her, and him telling her about his trauma happen later, and be difficult for him, and a deep, heartfelt moment).
Like I was saying in my other post, I think if they framed his arc in how he dealt with the town collectively, I think that would have fit better, and been more touching and satisfying. I would have liked to see him struggling to trust humans, and then see as time progressed how several different people in the town liked him and meant him no harm, and how he realized he could trust them, and that he liked them too. It wasn’t that he had a bad romantic partner and needed a new one. He believed he needed to be punished for killing his father, and in his deep loneliness he let these kids into his house and heart, and they turned on him because he was half vampire. That’s something pretty deeply ingrained, and not something a new romance just fixes by existing. He needed to work through that in a much deeper way.
I know this is gonna be a very unpopular opinion, and it's totally cool if you disagree, but in a weird way... I sort of disliked Alucard’s ending. Don’t get me wrong, Im glad he’s happy, and I’d certainly prefer it to him just getting more trauma like last season (*shudders*), and I don’t think him opening up his castle (and his heart) to humanity is a bad way to end his story, certainly not. I think that fits. And my heart did melt a bit at the "I'm weirdly happy" scene. But, where everyone else is like “*sobbing* happy endings for all our faves” ...I see the creators of the show trying to wrap everything up in a neat little bow, and while that’s certainly not all bad, I don’t love every aspect of that. Theres a time and place for that, but a show based on video games, for which there’s more content in these storylines isn’t one of them in my mind.
Sometimes some of the sadness needs to linger. At the very least, let it linger at the beginning of the season so you can work through it in a powerful way, you know? It may have been tough to see Alucard be more closed off, but I think it would have been more satisfying to see him open up his heart and go back to his old self if we saw his trauma leave lingering effects at the beginning.
To me it didn’t feel like a satisfying arc, it felt like the fairytale ending of “oh look he’s not apprehensive about humanity even after what happened! Oh look he got the girl! And the Castle’s a happy place now! Look he’s not sad anymore! He’s even a father figure to these kids! He’s totally moved on!” And all those things can be awesome when done properly, and when they have depth to them. But they didn’t work through the trauma to get there, so it felt surface level to me, and too fast. I really liked that first episode, and how we saw the two sides of him—one that's become more closed off, and the other that still buries the human despite his comments—and I also really liked the first interaction with the kids, and thought that was one of the few interactions that had depth to it and fit with his arc well. Having it go beyond “they’re helping him learn to like and trust humanity again, and displaying who he really is inside” ended up detracting from the power of his relationship with them in my mind.
Having played SOTN, I think an ingrained loneliness and sadness are, in a way, a key part of Alucard’s character. That sounds really sad and awful out loud but…there are some people that just have a sadness or a loneliness to them, and that's not entirely bad. Here’s the thing…it can make them that much more beautiful. The fact that they still fight for good, even when they see all the dark, those moments when they find true friends, despite how alone they are, those moments when they are happy, are so much more powerful. They just are always a bit…separate from other people. One of my favorite lines in anything is the line "We are connected by our darkness, not by our light" in Pandora Hearts. I think it's a line that fits Alucard well, and it’s always something that’s drawn me personally to him. Don't get me wrong, I don’t think Alucard’s all dark and sad and lonely, he’s definitely got a bright side to him too, of course he does. But I also don't think he ever is able to fully accept the vampire side of himself, and I find that interesting, and worth exploring. Personally I was honestly hoping for the show makers to come up with a bittersweet reason for why he went to sleep for 300 years, (and I thought that's why they set things up with Sumi and Taka that he’d have something against his vampire nature). Personally it felt like they were trying to say “oh he’s all better now, he’ll never be sad or lonely again” and while that’s nice I suppose…for me it sort of…stops feeling like Alucard, in a way? I don't know if I'm explaining it right, or if that sounds terrible...😅
Anyways, back to the topic at hand. I do agree that’s very common of fandom that people are like “boom! Just add water! Instant father figure!” and I don’t love it either. Sometimes it can be cute if it truly fits, but it doesn’t fit every relationship between an adult-looking character and a kid character, and shouldn't be the first place people go to. In the same way every relationship doesn’t have to be romantic, not every relationship has to be parental/familial either. Sometimes it feels like fandom culture isn't really okay to have some characters just be good friends. A good friendship can be more wonderful than a romance sometimes.
If we have to put a label on it, I think he seemed like a nice older brother figure to them? I think that fits who he is in my mind. But father? Nope. Not for me. And again, I don’t think it needs a label.
Thanks again for sending me this ask!! It was nice to get the chance to work through some more of my feelings here too. Sorry if I went too overboard. And I hope I don’t sound too terribly negative, it really was a great season, and I definitely liked some parts of his arc, just not all of it.
If you or anyone else reading would like to discuss with me more, be my guest!! 💕
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gopeachllama · 3 years
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Why I think Feysand were OOC in ACOSF
I hope that no one misunderstands from the title but let me say this is a 100% PROfeysand post. so if you hated feysand even before acosf, then this post isn't for you.
So i've seen a lot of interesting theories about feysand's and in particular rhys' behaviour and choices throughout acosf. and while alot of them seemed possible and may have been the case canonically speaking, even as a feysand stan i just couldn't seem to wrap my head around some of the things they said and did in the book. they just both seem OOC, its the only pausible explanation for me.
To understand why feysand were OOC in the book we have to look at this through a narrative perspective. as in we have to ask why would the author write the character/s in this way?
a quick overview of what a character arc is
so there can be a lot of variations of a character arc in a story but the basics is as follows (how does the character go from point 'a' to point 'b'):
the 'big lie' - the views/beliefs/actions the character has at the start which will be challenged throughout the story (this is point 'a')
the 'incident' - a plot point in which starts development of the character. something that spurs the character into action, this most ofter happens when they are placed in an unfamiliar situation. this usuallyy is the intial challenge to their 'big lie'. at this point the story will move forward and theres no going back.
the midpoint - the character changes conciously or subconciously, they start to recognise their own flaws in the 'big lie'.
world collaspes - this is usually on the heels of a victory, the character reaches the lowest point in their journey. they finally confront 'the big lie' and forces to stop this deception they inflict on themselves. they can destroy it or it will destroy them.
the climax - the reason for the story. the reason why the character had to take this journey in order to get to this moment. the moment that the character will decide once and for all whether they will go forward to point 'b' or regress back to point 'a'
the resolution - the character reaches point 'b'. their view/beliefs/actions have changed, they no longer believe in the 'big lie'.
So obvisouly the main character in acosf is Nesta. What sjm does in her books is that every plot point and development of secondary characters is in service to the arc of the main character. None of the character's outside of Nesta have their own development. Not even Cassian, any sort of changes or developments he undergoes is in service to Nesta (a complete missed opportunity for Cassian but that a whole other point). And before anyone tries to say otherwise, you can have development for characters even if they are secondary ones (and for a book that is 800+ pages long it is definitely possible). An example is with his can also be seen with Gwyn. Her leaving the library for the first time was a huge moment for the character, but she did so, in order to comfort Nesta after her big fight with Cassian. It was also so that Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie could all be together in Illyria so they could be kidnapped and forced to enter the blood rite (where the final showdown occurs with Nesta and the villan).
so what has this got to do with feysand and why are they OOC?
In fact the entire plot with feyre's pregnancy was made to give chracter developments for Nesta. There was nothing written in the book that suggested any developments for feyre and rhys. it did nothing for them. Nesta needed to become central to the story and the only way sjm thought to keep feyre side lined was to make her pregrnant. It was also just lazy writing and world building bc there is no way that rhys would have though of this when he and feyre were trying for a baby.
SIN #1 The Shields
Rhys practicing shields (shield thats doesn't even allow anyone to even touch her) on feyre, which she just allows. the book explains because of the fact that there is more danger to her now that she's pregnant. Narratively, this would make sense if there is a payoff. Like later in the story if feyre was in physical danger and the shield saves her or if the shield became a detriment to her in some way. But no nothing like this happens. Rhys 'practices' the shield on her and thats it. Rhys, who was the same person that trusted feyre enough defend herself against the weaver. It was totally out of character that he would shield her to the point that Cassian can't even kiss her on the cheek (sounds familiar huh). and the same goes for feyre, who has no problem with this (*cough* tamlin locking her up *cough*). Thats is some OOC behaviour.
So what were the point of the shields? well since sjm made it canon that fae can smell when a female is pregnant, the biggest way they came into play was in the scene when rhys lifted it long enough so that everyone could sense that that feyre was pregnant. And It could have been just that, feyre and rhys were expecting a baby, and Nesta can go along with her development, they did not need to intersect. But it did, and we'll come back to that later. This scene is a lighthearted moment in the book, one of the rare few where all the characters are happy and celebrating a good thing. acofas we knew that rhys and feyre decided to try for a baby, and seeing it pay off here was enjoyable for the readers.
But what else does this scene do? through Nesta's perspective, we can read her thoughts on it, and though she doesn't reveal much its an important character moment for her. the readers can see that she can feel happiness for someone else beyond the self-loathing she guards herself with, it shows that she is a character worth rooting for.
SIN #2 Rhys concealing the dangers of the pregnancy from feyre
oof this one is a doosey. this was the most baffling thing to come out of acosf for me. there is literally no reason or explanation that would make sense for rhys to lie to feyre like that. It offers no development for the two character it affects the most: rhys and feyre. there no fallout on rhys' end for lying to her, and there is no turmoil for feyre such as falling into depair like we told she would (the whole reason that rhys was hiding it in the first place).
When Nesta finds out that the pregnancy was most likely going to kill feyre and the baby. instead of Nesta disagreeing and urging Rhys to tell feyre, she doesn't say anything and forms a temporary truce with him, a character she has always had conflict with. It also serves as the incident that allows Nesta to have her 'world collapse' moment in her character arc. How else was Nesta going to realise what a shitty person is was being if she didn't do something so absolutely shitty? in a fit of rage, Nesta reveals to feyre that the pregnancy was going to kill both her and the baby. she get taken away on a hike in illyria (because???) and she reaches rock bottom after she comes to term with what she did. the story is taken away from velaris and the inner circle, and any conflict and resolution that happens between feyre and rhys, if it even happened at all, happens off page. again furthering my point about the pregnancy having no impact on the two characters is affects the most. After Nesta's fleeting moment of enlightenment, and her swordplay sex marathon with Cassian (urgh) she returns to velaris and nothing has changed between rhys and feyre. there isn't really much of a development with Nesta's relationship with feyre, their 'reconciliation' occurs all of less than one page and doesn't even happen out loud, just mind to mind. Now that Nesta has had her important character moment, nothing else matters (again lazy writing).
SIN #3 Everyone dies
ok so yes everyone has said their two cents about this and i agree with it. Feyre and nyx had to die so that Nesta could have her climax moment. It is the climax of the story since it is the big story development right before the resolution. and about the bargain - feysand decided in acofas that they were going to try for a baby. meaning that it was after this decision that they struck the bargain that they would die together. so at some point they would have thought of the fact they would have a child/children when the both die. im sorry but do they seem like the kind of ppl that would make a suicide pact even if it meant leaving their children behind? TOTALLY OOC for me. and i dont know i guess also the stakes weren't high enough with just the threat of feyre and nyx dying.
So feyre and nyx are dead and rhys will soon follow and Nesta intervenes to save them. Its also a self-sacrificing moment bc she has to give up her powers in order to do this... Showing that she does truely love her family and the depths of her powers. (seriously idc how you stan or hate how does anyone this good book?). don't doubt that in the future books sjm will find a way for Nesta to get her powers back (whatever they are (pure death WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???))
So Nesta saves the day, everyone is fine and nothing has changed except Nesta is nice now probably. the end.
welp this got way longer that i expected but anyways long story short there was nothing about the pregnancy that gave development to feysand characters and it was all for the development of the main character.
i don't claim acosf!feysand and sjm better fucking leave them alone in the rest of the books.
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icecreamkink · 3 years
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watched all of the untamed / cql in two weeks after my friend 1 told me abt mdzs a hundred years ago and my friends 2 and 3 tried to get me into cql for like two whole years and there are.
feelings.
very first scene is a very dramatic death in the middle of nightmare battle on sith planet land . i will forget abt it in the next tenish episodes and then will be very surprised when it becomes Extremely Painful
anyway magic flying gays and possession and human sacrifice! we are off to a great start
in retrospect, chaos goblin wei wuxian must have had a blast pretending to be so cRaZy and be as disruptive as he could as mo xuanyu lbr
listen. why is fire always evil coded. cant a magic clan wear red, black and orange and have flame motif while being wholesome?
For Legal Reasons These Are Not Zombies
i wish the politics of the sect were a bit clearer, especially at the beggining when the wen clan had sm power, was wen ruohan the chief cultivator? is that why they were so slow in responding to the attacks? im v confused by the pre yiling patriarch politics
fighting in the roof by the moonlight as way of flirtiiiiiiing. as i understand this is a wuxia/xianxia trope and honestly...... thank u for ur service
slight bullying and being a nuisance in general, as a way of flirting we love to see it
wwx: if i drink on the rooftop, thats not inside the cloud recesses! hmmm check and mate :D lwj: i will fuck u up so help me god   wwx: :0
i lov them
through hell or high water (quite literally) wei wuxian rem ains a trashfire gremlin till the end and i love him with my whole heart
in the pt subs wei wuxian calls jiang cheng a stubborn duck and i dearly wish that had come back
my opinions on almost every character goes from love to hate u - Hmm Me Like U - BABY. ILY. and i am Very Pleased w that. its been a while since i loved such a complete cast so much i think
no really. i WONT go into a detailed rant abt what i love about each of these characters and each of their relationships to each other. but i COULD. 
some lan disciples in the loudest whisper ever: YEAH THATS THE JIN BASTARD MENG YAO HEARD THE GOT SUPER HUMILIATED BY HIS DAD LOL SURE HOPE HE DOESNT TAKE SLIGHTS TO HIS CHARACTER TO HEART
lan xichen, immediately: i must Love him 
being into problematic ppl is in the Lan genetics, we come to realize
wen qing deserves so many awards for so many things but not snapping and just stabbing wen chao is at the top 
that scene at lan qirens class where wwx talks about using resentful energy to fight a violent spirit. exquisite.
 It establishes Good Student lan wangji, wei wuxian as curious and questioning and not afraid of taboo,  lwj sees that wwx is not, in fact, a dumb ass hes just a Dumbass,  shows us the audience (esp. a western audience) how shocking the idea of disrupting the dead/dying and controlling resentful energy actually is,  the theoretical foreshadow arguing, everyone else like ‘shUT UP’,  “and how could you ensure that the resentful energy would obey you and not hurt other?” “well i havent thought that far” and of course, lan qiren just straight up lobbing a hard object at wwx head,. chefs kiss
fellas is it gay to bother the hot rule obessessed nerd from ur school and make drawings of him with flowers in his hair and then hide gay porn in his book to antagonize him and ask him to hold ur hand and be ur friend and talk to him all the time and get him drunk and give him bunnies bc you know he likes them and give him a lantern and always want his attention and dedicate yourself to getting him to smile-
and after all of that wwx rly said oh i Admire him, aksd like yeah we all were there in high school buddy
i have Learned. caves = gay.
 accidental marriage +beint physically tied together with the sacred married ribbon+ gay panic+foreshadowing+bunnies! in the cave (1)
the story abt lan yi and baoshan sanren tho. i would like to see it
early days wen bros pull my heart strings like a guqin 
EVERYTHING about the lantern scene; disaster hets jiang yanli and jin zixuan; how wwx made lwj a bunny lantern. how soft and touched lwj was. wwx gleefully pointing out he was smiling and lwj IMMEDIATELY PULLING HIW SWORD ON HIM LMAO. tragically foreshadowy promises to do right by pepople, living without regrets. lwjs 'oh no do i love him??' face. just. all of it. 
i have it on good acc that in the novel lwj is explicitly Repressed Gay Panicked Big Horny which is delightful and rly Adds to the performance
 baby lwj is really just conceal dont feel dont let them know u have EMOTIONS (derogatory)
jiang cheng rly went "why dont.u go play with HIM if u like him so much"
jc and wwx have big BIG annoying sibling energy dont think too hard abt it or youll cry
lotus pier is soo pretty :((((((((((((((((
up until episode 13 you could think this could be a magical ancient chinese gays pride n prejudice w swords and shenanigans ................youre just not prepared for the game of thrones of it all
seriously ha ha ha i cried so much w this show my eyes genuinely swelled up . like. physically. fun timez fun timez
that being said, its hilarious that wen xu goes to cloud recesses like 'come out or ill kill all these hostages' and then DOESNT WAIT FOR AN ASWER AND KILLS THEM ALL IMMEDIATELY. do u know how blackmail works sir
 would like to make it recorded that from day one i was like 'CALL A GODDAMN CULTIVATION G20 THIS ASSHOLE SECT IS LITERALLY MASSACRING YALL!!' and it took them like 3 or 4 massacres to do anything and they STILL sent their heirs into their territory  LIKE
when wwx cites the gusu lan rules to wen chao tho. that rebel/attention whore/cutie pie 'look lan zhan i DID memorize the rules after all' ‘also a big fuck you to the wen sect :D :D’ sweet spot that scene achieves . delicious
all the cultivator young masters being petty af even though they are practically prisoners at the cave is hilarious and i love them
hurt and comfort + gay mistunderstandings + watsonian gay declaration music + accidental evil acquisition! at the cave (2)
its like where do i start? the fact theyre both trapped and kind of heavily injured inside an isolated cave with a murder turtle? wwx gay panicking lwj into coughing up bad blood? lwj being jealous as wwx babbles abt mianmian? telling him he shouldnt play with people and wwx saying he never played him? wwx going Oh. I See what is happening. YOU like mianmian, and lwj absolute done face ??? (iconic) wwx touching the sacred married ribbon Again? the telepathic communication? the sword? WEI WUXIAN ASKING LAN WANGJI TO SING TO HIM AS HE IS PASSING OUT AND LWJ SINGING HIM. THE SONG. HE WROTE. FOR WWX. AND THAT HE CALLED. THEIR SHIP NAME????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
they are SO insufferable pleeeeease
in the words of my friend 1 : “CQL is so gay we were all amazed how it got past the censors Ofc unfortunately it can't be novel level gay But they did their best And we love them for it”
in the theme of songs THIS OST. WUJI HAS BEEN LIVING IN MY MIND RENT FREE SINCE I FIRST HEARD IT the whole ost is so so sO beautiful.
 the costuming in this is also soooo exquisite. the embroidery? the fabrics? the details? how every sect and clan has a distinct style and architecture? (also ik they based each off of dif periods in chinese history which is REALLY fucking cool) just chefs kiss
the direction too!. i enjoy the unusual camera movements and i think they give it that Vibe, also their composition is PARTICULARLY good when it comes to telling the subtext through position of camera/position of character (like nhs off to the side in scenes he at first glance doesnt need to be/ how lwj is often centered when hes Jealous Yearning at wwx being affectionate w other ppl, wwx return from burial mounds etc)
ik madam yu is like Badass Milf Check and shes not getting any mom of the year awards but im delighted at how messy she is. IMAGINE that woman on tiktok
you better have enjoyed gay cave (2) bc its Just Pain from here on out! 
jiang fengmian and madame yu win the Most Dramatic Way to show they do care about each other, actually ..... ever :)
i thought jiang yanli jiang cheng and wei wuxian forcing themselves to escape yunmeng barely holding on after their parents are killed was going to be the height of pain in this show. ha. 
the family dynamics in general on this showwwww, both blood/ adopted/ found families, brotherly bonds and lifelong friendships just. rly. truly. fucked me up. theyre all so important and complicated and well rounded and beautiful and tragic
and beyond being a Win For the Gays im so glad the relationships w wwx and jiang yanli/ wen qing were NOT changed from platonic bc they are so much better like that imo. like maybe if we didnt Live In A Society it wouldnt be so, but the fact wwx and others can love and value them so much and theres nothing romantic or sexual abt it is like. so refreshing. especially @ jyl, with the way he and jc are overprotective of her and shes such a nurturing/care taker figure for them, it would just not vibe as well if they made it romantic
i love that this is a story abt Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch aka Actual Satan/Boogey Man/Village With/Public Enemy Number One , my dude is literally a necromancer who only dresses in black and has evil smokey black tendrils wafting out of him, but the really edgy one is still jiang cheng, pastel purple fashion icon
and speaking of best/worst siblings wei wuxian and jiang cheng *immediately starts crying* 
The Golden Core Transfer i just. no thots only tears 
wen qing and wen ning putting themselves in so much danger just.... to help them. wn saving jc from wen chao. wq finding a way to get wwx to transfer his core. like thinking about the monumental work these two did to help wwx and jyl and jc... jyl trying so fucking hard to be strong and keep on moving and giver her little brothers comfort after losing everything... jiang cheng. losing his parents and his home and his ability to do anything abt it and his complete desperation and lack of self worth and turning on them with agression  when he didnt realize all that they did for him ... hhhhhhhhhhhhh
me, pointing at the whole cast “i just LOVE them mom!!!”
its sad tho, that BARELY ANY of the women have like.... actual important conversations let alone relationships with each other at all in the story. and like wq and jyl have stayed at the same place for extended periods of time, where wq actively took care of her TWICE,  and still! not one measly convo, nothing! ................ .𝓌ₕᵧ
everyone in this show need a good sip of Self Worth and Stop Sacrificing Yourself juice 
ngl the sword flying looks very dumb 
“a-cheng, please bring a-xian back.” “i will, i promise.” ;-;
the whole calling each other by the More Intimate Version of the name, first as teasing and later as true intimacy. mmmhmmm yes
untamed where everythings the same but wwx evil flute song is eoeo
related that scene when wwx comes back from the burial mounds for the first time w demonic cultivation and he acts all formal and calls lwj hanguang-jun and keeps being evasive and distant and mean and soooooo................. facetious 
and how hes kind of desperately trying to keep intense lwj at bay (A FIRST) and avoiding actually talking to either of them and its all tension ughhh and then he MOCKS his and lwjs relationship, he jokes w him in this like... mean echo of their usual ~banter~ oof 
 and like!!! uncertain but so relieved jc who just HUGS him w no reservations for once and its not like he isnt just as worried as lwj abt wwx and what hes doing, but he chooses in that moment to enjoy getting him back first and mmhmMMMmMm yes (maybe my favorite scene in the whole show? MAYBE SO. ) 
highkey hurt me but also. i might be into mean wwx. i will take no criticism.
lan zhans sad eyes tho :((((((((( 
on one hand i wish we could have seen what happened at the burial mounds but on the other the timeskip adds so much flair to his return so im hnnn
also i love that hes been missing for 3 months reappears kinda melancholic and bloodthirsty and knowing malign tricks and jc is like 'so. are u sad bc of lan wangji'
when ur bae survived the war but he thinks ur evil/ might be evil so you cant kiss :///
hmmm talking at the rooftop under the moonlight not mentioning everything that stands between usssss
they are the two jades of lan and we’ll be the two heroes of yunmeng is the type of line u dont even need to know whats gonna happen to know thats gonna be sad
when they fight wen ruoshan at the nightless city i thought that was the battle we see at the first ep and its not and its so easy and theyre all like ‘yayy we won go wwx!’ i was just. SCREAMS WHAT is gonna HAPPEN
so like. post burial mounds/sunshot campaign pre yiling patriarch wwx is like. ultra arrogant, ultra mocking, peak lil shit and it gave me e v e r y t h i n g i wanted
even tho having the wen prisoners at the targets at phoenix mountain and still having wwx and jzx shooting the arrows was???? so.... tone deaf 
wwx: fucking w demonic energy   jyl: he has never done anything wrong in his life, ever <3 <3 (mood)
the parallels between meng yao/wei wuxian (and even xue yang a bit?) are Seen and they are Valid
wwx post burial mounds: can yall SHUT UP abt the goddamn sword (suibian left the chat)
LIKE truly, we talk abt the angst and yearning with wangxian. but what abt wwx and suibian. xianbian / xianqing angst and comfort 100k
take a shot everytime someone coughs up blood
zidian is simply the coolest spiritual weapon rip to suibian and chenqing and bichen and sendou and baixa........ but tis the truth 
cons: everyones families died in a nightmare war! everyones homes burned to the ground! everyone is traumatized! pros: everyone gets cooler clothes and weapons!!
wen ning and a-yuan and yanli bestest babes squad dont touch me rn
everyone: brooding and fighting                                                                wq and jyl: why dont you try some acupunture/drinking some soup and calm down huh? how abt that bitch?? 
showing the battle/massacre at the nightless city first was genius actually bc then everytime we have a cute scene w yunmeng bros and theyre like 'we'll be together forever! uwu' youre like oh. oh no. oh no no no. 
justice vs lawfulness vs means and ends 👁
jc: stay in the right path and practice the art of the sword                        wx: yeah thats not gonna happen chief
my reaction to wwx renouncing to the sect politics to help the wens was just that elmo burning gif in succession
the dramatic rain. wen qing desperately calling out to wen ning. the ghosts/puppets killing the guards. how terrifying wn actually was while wwx was controlling him :( lwj goeing after him to try and stop him and then he just; he Sees him and understands him even if he cant actually do anything about it other than let them go. 
“there must be somewhere in this earth we can go to :(((((((((”
"IF I HAVE TO FIGHT THEM, I'D RATHER IT BE YOU. DYING BY YOUR HANDS WOULD AT LEAST BE WORTH IT." oh my god oh my god oh my goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooddddddd
also lwjs umbrella is white w black smoke.. .  . nice
yiling patriarch / demonic farming burial mounds settlement is like one of my favorite concepts. they an "EVIL" FARMING COMMUNITY LED BY THE VILLAGE WITCH COME ON
they planted TURNIPS and LOTUS FLOWERS and ONE (1) baby and made lanterns and a common hall :(((((((
wen qing and wei wuxian, baddest bitches and genius science best friends i absolutely LOVED to see it. they rly went ‘is anyone gonna sibling/project partner that’ and didnt wait for an answer
both wwx and jyl getting lotus ponds at the burial mounds and in lanling bc they miss lotus pier ;;;;;;;w
;;;;; wish jyl had actually gone into the burial mounds. we were robbed of jyl and wq meeting again and jyl meeting a-yuan and seeing the settlement and the homes and all ;w; at least jc did go, stab wounds and broken arms and all
wwx like... having thrown his whole life away to help the wens (yeah the sect leaders and jin guangshan in particular wanting his stygian tiger amulet was an Element but still) and not.... necessarily regretting it, but grappling with all of the consequences of it... becoming moody and drepressed at times, missing his family and lotus pier and his friends and probably simply missing being around people and causing trouble, extrovert that he is, lashing out at the wens and at a-yuan, just in general the whole messiness of that experience
the way the resentful energy does affect his temperament is rly nice bc its not too in your face,(i mean outside of the Shaky Hands of Rage) but like he clearly has a much lesser control on his anger and impulsivity (tall order) than both before bm and after hes ressurected
on that note A-YUAN BABIEST BABY BOY BEST BOY
lan zhan being like oh hey there wei ying fancy meeting u and our son here. just passing by u know how it is hmmmmMm and then PLOT TWIST having defied orders to go see him and being punished for it. oof;;
 they habent seen each other in like? a year? and now theyre tgt 10 seconds and are already parenting a child together
also lwj rly kneels down in the snow way too much to be healthy
wwx: calm down guyssss i wont lose control of demonic cultivation omgggg  .   spoiler alert: he loses control of demonic cultivation
did u enjoy cute children? good bc now the Real Pain Begins
jiang yanli and jin zixuan rly out there APROPRIATING both disaster gays AND bury ur gays huh ;w;
i KNEW jin lings birthday was gonna fuck something up but the GASP that left my body when wwx lost control of wn and killed jin zixuan .. . . 
im sorry and thank you aaaaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAA 
when wen ning and wen qing were telling wwx their plan i was saying NO NO NO NO NO NO out loud in despair 
also can we talk abt how wq is definetely talking about only the both of them surrending themselves but then? everyone else just surrenders w them? IT MAKES NO SENSE LIKE WHY WOULD THEY what would be the Point
 sometimes there are some pretty gaping jumps in logic and continuity that are just like                     ?          ?
wwx: oh so when you try to murder me its justified but when i survive through dark magic and murder all of you its a "war crime"
unsurprisingly, his most feral, most spiraling moment talking to the sect leaders on the roof and attacking them and even fighting lan zhan is among my favorite scenes... its like, so painful to watch but also   so       thrilling   (and maybe my wen bbs dying arose some resentful energy in me what can i say) 
and its JUST, all they ever wanted was to do good but then... war. and trauma. and hubris. 
jiang cheng on the ground clearly thorn between what to do and feel is a Mood, lets just say
i was already crying when jyl showed up, but if i wasnt-
 i suffered SO MUCH through this series trying to figure out WHY jc would kill wwx. and when i understood. its somehow not as bad as i thought and also MUCH MUCH WORSE
a look into my group chat during the last flashback episodes:
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SO ANYWAY. after the BLOOD BATH and RIPPING YOUR HEART OUT and FEEDING IT TO YOU  the untamed goes ‘ayy back to the present!! tu du dud ud du’ 
literally it ends a quarter into an episode and then KEEPS GOING i had to pause and stare blankly at the ceiling for an hour
babie cultivators and detective soulmates . i do need some cute after All of That 
(not that the pain is over LOL)
lwj is significantly less emotionally repressed in the present and its delightful. hes just ALL IN with wwx. and not just in the ‘i would and have killed various men and risked my reputation for you’ but also ‘ur tired here have a drink i brought it up cause i know u like it and it want you to be happy, always’
“when everyone praised me and wanted my power, you were the only one that challenged me. now that everyone hates me and wants me dead, youre the only one that stands by my side.” hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 
and just filling in the blanks how lan zhan searched for him. for all of those 16 years he searched for him and was punished for it and raised a-yuan, the only survivor of the burial mounds settlement, as his own in gusu......
and jiang cheng.  being the tough love uncle . having raised the yunmeng jiang clan from the rubble all alone, his whole family dead, some of it on the blame of his own brother, his siblings, his closest friends gone.......and only jin ling there needing his guidance. 
THE PARALLEL BETWEEN JIN LING BEING A LIFELINE FOR JIANG CHENG AND A-YUAN FOR LAN WANGJI AFTER THE BATTLE AT THE NIGHTLESS CITY  
great now i made myself sad
and like . the fact! that lwj and jc dislike each other!!. jc projects blame onto him for wwx both “leaving” him and indirectly causing their families deaths and when hes so consumed by it he makes wwx an enemy, lwj is there now? trying to protect him?? and lwj, who can never understand the pain that wwx , indirectly or not put jc through, but who was right there when jc tried to kill him and will never allow him to hurt wwx again. and how they like. in a way project blame of their tragedies onto each other while dealing with some type of survivor guilt and in their own way still loving wwx through it all???  amd in way its kind of fundamentally selfish but also tragically understandable? and like when u put it against the fact that after he disappears during the sunshot campaign they were looking for him together and fought together??
JUST. THE CHARACTERS. AND THE RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS. MAN. UGH. GOD. 
and like i think thats what makes it so good? its such a sad and painful and violent story, edgy even, but its compelling bc at the center of it there are all of these relationships and different types of love and hope and. :( i love it
enough crying lets talk abt wwx sleeping at the jingshi with lwj and wearing his under garment for a minute 🙏
 jin ling just has that Was Raised by JC energy tho lmao i love him
babie cultivator squad is the perfect ammount of cute and comedic relief while still bearing the weight? of the narrative in a way, both from sizhui and jin lings existences, and also. like. how do i put this. they feel hopeful? they were born after a war, they came of age at a time of relative peace, they dont hold on so closely to the resentments of their parents/father figures, they are specifically shown as more accepting and open minded. and its like.... Hope for the future  
one of the ?? things  i love the most is the fact that the main cast are often in situations where theyre hunted/running but they like. never wear disguises... just going around in their gorgeous expensive clan clothes and hair ornaments and distinctive spiritual weapons.... maybe w a straw hat on, just for kicks
wwx teacher 🥺🥺🥺
so this is why its called Yi City Misery huh
a-qing is such. an icon. im so sad. my girl even knew to leave xys dumb self rotting by the road but no one listens to her thats why theyre all dead or sad 
her and xue yang measuring each other up was so entertaining lmao
 its the funniest thing when hes like. HERES MY SAD STORY. FOR WHY IM A SADISTIC MURDERER. I BROKE MY HAND ONCE. 
like ok someone broke his hand in a horrible way, and like Poverty, i get it but also like.......... that lost the brunt of a proper sob story like, 50 sadistic murders ago bby
and i love that xingchen does not entertain that for a second hes like ‘not ?????? good enough???’ and the best thing is he wasnt even like 'u hadto be the bigger person' or sth but ' well then break that dudes hand back, rip his arm off for i care, what do the rest of us have to do w anything???” 
anjo sensato :(
xue yang is like..... the sexy sadistic evil version of a himbo..... a meanbo...
the fucked upness of xy’s feelings for xxc/ xxc and sl feelings for each other... like my dude literally gave his bf HIS EYES. and xy getting so attached to xxc .... the fucked up fake domesticity.... having him hurt sl..... then desperately trying to bring him back ...................... oof
song lan........... literally had his eyes AND tongue removed, his bfs eyes put in place, was almost killed, turned into a puppet by his bf unknowingly, manipulated by xy, sees his bf killing himself in despair.... and STILL finds the strenght to get up from there, and keep on traveling and helping people and attempting to fix xxcs soul.......... like, my man. damn. 
wangxian looking at songxiao and seeing an Actually more painful parallel for themselves. ft. that Color Coding. 
THE A-YUAN/SIZHUI REVEAL PUNCHED ME IN THE HEART but in a good way for a change
should have know that he would be the Best Boy the cute one w all the braincells
the butterfly AND the bunny lantern. i see how it is
u know is very convenient that no one can see the stark black veins on wen nings neck, ever 
BAT WEN NING 
wns face when lwj comes into wwx room like ‘:0 omg did u two finally get your shit together? good for you master wei good for u’ 
(they didnt) (yet)
DISASTER DRUNK LWJ. JUST. THRUST SOME CHICKENS TO SHOW UR RESSURECTED BAE THAT U LOVE THEM.
i have absolutely no idea WHY they gave lwj the same punishment for fighting his own sect/allies to protect the burial mounds as when they got drunk on cloud recess class days.... like? its such a ... emotional continuity error again
also is lwj gonna get an actual friend besides wwx , ever
mianmian marrying and having a family and a cute life after saying FUCK U AND UR SYSTEM TOO in a much less unhinged and dramatic way than wwx......... fills me w joy
also lol the idea that like. her husband not knowing that shes friends w satan/the boogey man/the village witch is hilarious
i love nie mingjue bc hes the resident Though Guy but also the most dramatic bitch in this show and thats Saying Something
jin ling cant have one uneventful relative can he
the fact that everyone present already knew “mo xuanyu” was wwx at the stairs is so funny, their faces are like ‘oh............ wow. that. sure is a development. shock” 
in the tradition of extremely loud whispers wwx tells lwj with twelve guards standing like one meter away from them: HEY PSH LAN ZHAN PRETEND IM FORCING YOU TO STAY W ME DO IT
oh my god oh my god
the absolute Yearning on his face when he leaves wwx and a-yuan at the burial mounds and refuses to stay for dinner was already Enough but the fact?? they brought it back?? to this declaration of love?? their expressions??????? strike me dead right now just go ahead
lFor Legal Reasons We Cant Kiss but we will have a very sappy declaration of love and trust and look at each other in way that is the actualization of 💞💘💗💖💓💘💞💗💖💘💗💖💕💞
also icb all the sect leaders and guards are standing there watching them say they like like each other with a dozen swords pointing at their neck
i enjoyed the depiction of the fickle public perception and how easily it can be used to scapegoat people. when the sect leaders turn on jgy and wwx knows thats its more for convenience than anything else...
poor lxc is literally like 'oh so when YOUR problematic boyfriend gets called evil its a misunderstanding but when its MY problematic bf-'
ok like i cant get over nmj let jgy play a song that messed with his temperament at all, like maN u KNEW he might be shady wth
wwx: “hey dont say anything bad abt lan zhan hes not an arrogant dick, thats just his face. 
ME ON THE OTHER HAND"
the cultivators as wwx is poking holes in their narrative is literally *nazaré meme*
"wei wuxian-!" "what did i break your leg, too?" not to be problematic but i laughed so hard
not as hard as "you dont have the rank to talk to me " tho
i Enjoy that, over the course of story, wwx sees that... theres nothing truly to Do, but move on. he saw how his arrogance and his mistakes hurt others, and hes trying to fix what he can, but he already did die for his mistakes and there are things he cant fix and that's. just how it is. even towards jgy, the narrative doesn't go gleefully and completely with "lets make THEM pay bc theyre the big bad" bc its not that simple, and it wouldn't lead anywhere but more pain...
re him and jiang cheng and the wens and kinda. isnt that what nhs did? scheming to displace jgy out of revenge more than any justice and doing so in the most painful way?
idk if that actually makes sense im truly just babbling
i thought the scene at the lotus pond would be CUTE but the context was PAIN again
jiang cheng finding out about his golden core and his conflict with wwx at the guanyin temple .... destroyed me but in a nice way kinda.... same way it destroys him look at his face oh god
and. the fact??? he sacrificed himself for wwx?? first?? and he'll probably never tell anyone much less wwx???? keeps me up at night
i havent decided if the neckbreak transition between jgy does sth super Evil or does he he does OR Does He yes he does O R does heeeee is sth i dislike or not
jin guangyao and wei wuxians most interesting parallel is that... theyve both seen 'hmm hey this system is fucked up' and wwx went 'so fuck it all i will renounce it and challenge it' and jgy went 'so fuck it i will use all of it to my advantage and manipulate it to my goals and whims'
the fact jgys mom was actually great and he loved her and his whole issue w it was more than simply being ashamed of being a bastard kinda got me ngl
never trust a dude with a fan.
nhs and jgy: the first rule to a convoluted and decades spanning violent revenge plot is to have fun and be yourself! 
when a-yuan finally FINALLY remembers ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; wen ning has someone in his family back and a-yuan has someone to talk abt his wen family and wwx has him back bc he survived and lwj raised him anD HES THEIR SON. THEYRE MARRIED AND HAVE A SON. UGH.
and theyre allowed to heal. everyone is allowed to try and recover and be happy
netflix put all of the 3 endings on top of each other and it looks kinda weird actually BUT I DONT EVEN MIND :’’’’’’’’’)
the gasp that left me when lwj says ‘wei ying’ and wwx turns.........
there was also a screen with ‘thank you mxtx for creating these characters, we hope their wishes come true’ and i might. have cried then too. maybe. 
that was . a ride. as is proven by this behemot of a ramble clearly i just really needed and Outlet. i am currently trying to convince dumb monkey brain to not consume the other medias of mdzs immediately bc i REALLY need to like. live. a life. and take care of real responsibilities.  *longest oh boi ever*
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Additionally, your thoughts on Dracula and Adrian from the Netflix adaptation of Castlevania? I find Dracula really tragic, and the ending scene of Season 2 crushed me because I was not expecting Adrian to cry. He’s usually so stoic and calm that I didn’t think he would weep, I expected him to just shrug it off like heroes usually do, but no, when given time to process everything, the first thing he does is break down into tears. Sypha was right in calling him a brooding teen in an adult body.
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Ohh man. If you just take a look at my writing blog (or anywhere I post my fanfiction) it’ll become pretty clear pretty quickly how I feel about them XD So far all my Castlevania fics have been about the Tepes Family. Adrian and Drac are my favorite characters in the series!! (Though I do love pretty much all the characters in it.)
YES YES YES!!
They did an incredible job making Drac sympathetic and tragic. I don’t know if you know anything about the games, and granted, they couldn’t put a lot of story stuff in the games, but (at least as far as I’m aware) in most of them it’s like “ya, he was an evil dude who did evil things because he was evil.” So it actually would have been pretty accurate to the source to make him just an unsympathetic, irredeemable villain, but they didn’t and I LOVE them for it. Playing Symphony of the Night (Alucards game) after watching the series l was almost longing for that Drac I know and love from the series, (though it’s fun to see evil Drac too).
As I’ve said, I adore redeemable villains, and they did an amazing job with him, to the point where pretty much everyone in the fandom adores him, which is extremely tough to accomplish—even if you write a redeemable villain well, often large parts of the fandom don’t see it and hate the character. I knew that the point was that they were going to defeat Drac but I have to say, especially since I originally knew nothing of the games, I was hoping they’d save him by the end.
I think the fact that he liked and was kind to Hector and Isaac was evidence that he wasn’t too far gone. I mean, the only two people he genuinely trusted and liked in his court were human…that’s so interesting, I wish it was at least talked about, either in the show or in the fandom. I think he actually liked humans, partially or especially because of Lisa, he just...was so angry, and needed someone to blame. He probably ultimately blamed himself for not being there to save her, and it was just easier to blame the humans he once hated/didn’t understand, even if in reality he didn’t hate them as much as he thought he did...
Doing more thinking and research into the show for my “If These Walls Could Talk” fic I recognize now that symbolically it made sense even within the show that he died when Lisa died (which I can explain more about if you want but id probably end up going off on a long tangent so I’ll save it)...but I still thought practically, in the show, he could have still been redeemed.
Omg I LOVED that. The longer I take to sit with it, the more I realize just how much I loved that they put him crying instead of shaking it off.
It’s very interesting that Drac and Alucard are more openly emotional characters. I might be totally wrong, but as far as I remember, they (...and Lisa when she dies, and probably Isaac in a flashback), are the only main characters we see openly cry. It’s a pretty bold move to make any of your characters emotional like that, but especially your villain, and your bold handsome hero. It’s sooo easy to get emotional characters and emotions wrong…or just offputting to some people...but more on that later.
I think Adrian and Drac are both rather sentimental, in an odd way. Much of Drac’s motivations in the show and even in the games (the times his motivations are explained) had to do with his wives (yes he was married before Lisa in the games...unless Lament of Innocence was retconned...) which is interesting. So many of his decisions are based on emotion. He lets Lisa in just because he likes her, he goes to war with the world because of Lisa, he sits in his study mourning her loss, he let’s Alucard kill him… I also notice very often he digs his nails into his palms until they bleed, presumably because if he didn’t he’d hurt someone else (in the scene where he hurts Alucard, he does this). His sentimentality doesn’t diminish is power as a villain, which is SO difficult to accomplish.
 I am emotional myself so I absolutely love to see emotional characters, but for most people, seeing even a normal character be emotional diminishes them in their eyes, or makes them whiny, so making your villain even a little emotional, and having that not take away from the audiences perception of their power as a villain is sooooooo hard to do, and I applaud them for making a so well-beloved, and still villainous and intimidating, but also emotional (at times) villain.
For Alucard. I don’t see any problem with him being emotional, but it makes even more sense if he’s a teen in an adult’s body—which was indeed portrayed quite well.
Yes that was interesting when he cried when drawing his parents!! I wasn’t expecting that when I saw him drawing them. I was enjoying and intrigued by his story so much, then when he started crying I was caught off guard—but in a good way. It really made me feel for him, and understand that he was still grieving his mother, and that knew the gravity of what he was currently doing.
I think it’s kind of important to show that kind of thing in a situation like this. It’s easy to think Alucard hates his dad, and they need to show the emotion of the situation to make it clear “no he doesn’t hate his dad, this actually breaks his heart, he just knows he has to do this.”
I loved when he was telling Trevor and Sypha about how much the world would lose by killing Dracula. It’s really interesting that he hides his emotion with them, and that Trevor and Sypha are so stoic. The son of Dracula isn’t the guy you expect to be the only hero who cries.
In “For Love” when Trevor’s like “Don’t get weepy about it” I was sitting there, sobbing, like “No, please get weepy about it! Let the boy cry for goodness sake!! Give me some emotion!!” But I too was not expecting him to cry like he did, and in grieving the death of his parents...
I knew the crying scene was coming because I’d seen pictures of it on here and pinterest, but I had no context for it. In the end it wasn’t just the weeping itself that made the scene so impactful, it was everything surrounding it. I didn’t know it would happen when he was completely alone (and would be for the foreseeable future), and in grieving his parents, or about the ghosts/flashbacks before it (cementing his grief), or that it was literally the last scene of the season, or that there would be no music for both the scene and the credits thereafter.
And that was what really got me.
Because, firstly, we never got to see any flashbacks to his childhood, and that was what I was begging for the entire series (and hence why its what I write about). To finally get it, and it not to just be something the audience gets to see, but something Alucard himself is seeing... a happy memory he’s seeing when he knows that is completely gone, he cannot hope to have it again, and for him to now be in his father’s place…that’s heartbreaking. Like just having your character cry—let alone those kinds of full-on sobs—is painful enough, showing a son grieving his parents is a particularly heart wrenching kind of sadness, but showing that he is haunted by memories of those parents he lost—not only lost but one of which he killed, and, if SOTN is canon for the show, the other of which he could have saved—of a happy childhood, and he is alone with these memories for the foreseeable future...that is truly heart wrenching.
Also the scene with Trevor and Sypha in the wagon earlier in the episode was super sweet, they could have easily put the Adrian crying scene earlier, and had the Trevor and Sypha scene be the last scene of the season (and Trevor’s game actually does end with them looking into the sunset, so ending with the last scene of “For Love” would be accurate as well), and left it on a positive note, and the audience would have been left with a completeness. But they made a conscious choice put his crying scene last, and it was so powerful, because it made you remember that at the end of the day, he isn’t just our bold handsome hero, he was a son who lost both his parents, and that, to him, this isn’t really a triumph, but a loss. It also kinda confirmed that Drac wasn’t an "evil guy, end of story". That there was reason to grieve him, and to show his son grieving, and to leave it there because of it. It was a personal gravity too
In the end, it was the lack of music in the scene, and even more so during the credits, so theres only his tears, and all you are left with in the end is this amplified emptiness that really did me in. I think I literally sat there, tear tracks on my face, my mouth open when I hit the credits.
Playing Symphony of the Night after watching the show is really interesting in exploring his character. I knew there was very little story, so I wasn’t expecting much from the story, but I actually found that I was beyond excited whenever there actually was some story, and the few lines they did say are stuck with me.
Maria comments early on that Alucard’s not very good at talking. At first I just chalked it up to...weird translations or whatever. But the more I played the game and the more I thought about him in the show...I think she’s right. He’s not very good at talking, yet if and when he does talk he’s quite eloquent, and precise with his words. (This actually makes him a somewhat difficult character to write). I wonder if perhaps this has some connection to his emotionalness. He’s very careful with what he says, and this may spread to what he does—such as being careful when he shows emotion. I’m curious why he’s like this. It could just be his nature, but I wonder if as a kid he was ever hated because he was a vampire—maybe people made fun of him, and he cried, and they made more fun of him because of it—and he learned both to hide his emotions, and that he had to be very deliberate and show people he didn’t mean any ill will with his words. (And he looks older than he is so people might call him immature for acting his mental age). All very speculative, of course. But it’d be fun to write about!
Also, another thing from SOTN that is related to this topic, there was a fight that really struck me (enough I actually wrote a fic about it (inverted recurrence)). SOTN takes plays 300 years after the events of The Netflix Series (aka Dracula’s Curse). Most of the bosses don’t seem to have a lot of meaning story-wise, they’re just there for you to fight. The other day I (Alucard) walked into a boss room...and there were Trevor, Sypha, and Grant (who was omitted from the Netflix series). They were fake versions of them, of course. And there’s no dialogue in the fight so maybe I’m just speculating, but what struck me was that the fact that Dracula could use them against him probably means he still cares about them, even after 300 years. It probably also means that they’re some of the only friends he’s ever had. Granted, he was asleep for a good chunk of those 300 years, still. It goes back to that sentimental-ness I was talking about earlier.
I few years ago I watched the Gravity Falls commentaries, and from them I got a lot of the writing advice I still think about and use today. Alex Hirsch said something on this subject which I really liked which is “Hold your tears.” When a character cries they’ve broken, that’s as far as they can go. So if you make a character cry when the audience themselves doesn’t feel the weight of the scene, or it doesn’t feel like the character has broken yet, it can feel like too...much/cheesy, and distance the audience. especially with cartoons where the way it’s drawn can actually affect your sympathy for the character (it can look weird or accentuated).
They did such an awesome job with this by literally holding his tears until the very end. I don’t know how other, non-emotional people felt about it, but Ive don’t know if I’ve ever seen tears used so well in a show, pack such a punch. To have it not just be a part of the scene but literally the focus, and at the end...it was powerful.
Sorry for the long response, and more importantly, I’m beyond sorry for taking so so SOOO long to respond. I hope you enjoy my response, if you see it <3
P.S. For anyone else who made it all the way to the end, I actually have a Castlevania sideblog now: @symphonyofthewrite !! I’d be beyond happy to recieve asks like this over there, if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts!!
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